Just as applicable to Kevin Rudd as it is to Obama. The good people at Americans for Tax Reform put out this statement today on Obama’s first press conference:

Assertion 1: The government can create wealth

OBAMA: “It’s absolutely true that we can’t depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life…when you have that situation; the government is an important element of introducing some additional demand into the economy. We stand to lose about $1 trillion worth of demand this year and another trillion next year. And what that means is you’ve got this gaping hole in the economy.”

FACT: The government cannot put into the economy what it first did not take out of the economy. That would be like scooping up water from one side of a lake, dumping the water into the other side of the lake, and announcing that you’ve just filled the lake.

Assertion 2: Cutting taxes doesn’t work

OBAMA: “But as we’ve learned very clearly and conclusively over the last eight years, tax cuts alone can’t solve all of our economic problems, especially tax cuts that are targeted to the wealthiest few Americans. We have tried that strategy time and time again, and it’s only helped lead us to the crisis we face right now.”

FACT: Pro-growth tax cuts are the only proven remedy for economic weakness. In the 1960s, the Kennedy top rate cut from 91% to 71% produced average economic growth of 6.2% until LBJ scuttled them for the Great Society and Vietnam. In the 1980s, the Reagan top rate cut from 70% to 28% produced average economic growth of 4.3% until the Andrews Air Force Base bipartisan Bush tax hike of 1990. In this decade, cutting the capital gains and dividends tax rate to 15% restored a healthy 3.0% average growth rate until the Pelosi-Reid-Obama leadership publicly announced they were going to raise taxes.